Brandin Cooks expects to sign with some team before training camp, ho…

Free agent wide receiver Brandin Cooks doesn't plan to be a free agent much longer. saltysenoritaaz.com

Cooks told Tim Graham of TheAthletic.com that he's looking forward to being in some team's training camp in a few weeks, and he hopes to return to Buffalo, where he finished last season.

“Obviously, Buffalo is the place I’d love to be,” Cooks said. “I want to prove that to them and have a full offseason with them. Both sides are figuring things out. We’ll see, but hopefully something transpires because I love going to training camp. That’s where you build that callus.”

Cooks said he has been staying in shape this offseason and wants to play with a contender. Cooks thinks the Bills are contenders as long as they have Josh Allen at quarterback.

“I chose Buffalo because of the belief in Josh Allen,” Cooks said. “From afar, you heard the things going on inside the receiver room. In my mind, ‘OK, this was an opportunity where you got guys that can play, but also there’s a niche in there where, if I can come in and do what I have to do, I’m contributing.’ It was the totality of things, but who wouldn’t want to play with Josh Allen?”

Cooks has played for the Saints, Patriots, Rams, Texans, Cowboys and Bills, and he is closing in on 10,000 career receiving yards. He's accomplished a lot in his NFL career, but he doesn't have a Super Bowl ring. That's his chief priority this year.

John Riggins won a Super Bowl while wearing No. 44 in Washington and no other players will be wearing that number in the future.

The Commanders announced on Thursday that they will be retiring Riggins' number during the 2026 season. The team will hold a ceremony to honor Riggins during halftime of their Week 9 game against the Rams.

Riggins spent the first five seasons of his career with the Jets before moving on as a free agent. He would spend the rest of his career in Washington and posted four 1,000-yard seasons with a career best of 1,347 yards coming in 1983. He also set a franchise record — tied for sixth in NFL history — by running for 24 touchdowns that season and he added six more scores in the postseason.

Riggins also had four touchdowns in the 1982 playoffs, including a 43-yard score in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl XVII win over the Dolphins.

"Riggo, as many know him, helped define one of the most successful eras in our history," Commanders owner Josh Harris said in a statement. "He played with a rare combination of physicality, fearlessness and personality that captivated fans and inspired his teammates."

Riggins still holds franchise records with 7,472 rushing yards and 79 rushing touchdowns. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.

Adam Schefter has spent nearly 17 years at ESPN. He'll be there even longer.

Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reports that ESPN and Schefter are closing in on a "long-term extension."

Terms weren't included. Schefter is reportedly making $9 million annually. (And to think some folks lost their minds at Dianna Russini making $800,000 per year.)

The new deal, per Glasspiegel, will run "several years into the '30s." Schefter, who is less than six months away from his 60s, had bristled at reports from earlier this year that ESPN was eyeing Ian Rapoport as a replacement for the 59-year-old Schefter.

“I know a lot has been made about my age this week and how I’m retiring, which by the way, no fucking chance about that if you don’t mind my language," Schefter said in his podcast in April, via Glasspiegel.

While it's still possible that Rapoport will succeed Schefter, it apparently won't be happening anytime soon.

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ESPN's current broadcast relationship with the NFL only runs through the 2030 season. But since ESPN's business relationship has the NFL owning 10 percent of the company, it's a safe bet that, when the next round of billion-dollar musical chairs ends, Bristol's butt will be buried in a Barcalounger.